Target Practice: Kanye West “Bound 2”

Welcome to Target Practice where bad popular songs of the past and present get shot. Kanye Kardashian. As much as I make fun of him and criticize his life choices, I’m still a fan of his music. Just because an artist is a real-life asshole doesn’t mean you can’t like their music. Sometimes, you have to separate the artists from the art. For more than ten years, Kanye has blessed us with game-changing classics, even his most polarizing material is different from everything else in mainstream music. His records usually have amazing production, I wish I could say the same about his lyrics. Kanye is not the best lyricist ever. If you ever look at his lyrics, a lot of them are simplistic and don’t hold a candle to other rappers known for strong lyricism, which brings us to today’s Target Practice, which is one of the few songs from Yeezus that I actually like. This is Bound 2.

No artwork, so here’s the cover for Yeezus instead.

All them other niggas lame, and you know it now
When a real nigga hold you down, you supposed to drown
Bound

I don’t know about you, but this line brings up very disturbing imagery. Seriously. Listen to that again and try NOT to picture some dude trying to drown his girlfriend in a bathtub full of water.

boyfriend: All them other niggas lame and you know it now. When a real nigga hold you down, you supposed to drown

girlfriend: *head under water* I can’t breathe.

boyfriend: Bitch, I’m a real nigga and I’m just holding you down. If you truly love me, then you would drown.

What you doing in the club on a Thursday?
She say she only here for her girl birthday

Good question. Why are you at a club on a Thursday? Well, at least it’s better than a Tuesday.

Dude, stop trying to impress Jerome. He’s not even real. Maybe Kanye has been watching too much Martin and thinks he’s in that world. Maybe that explains all of the crazy shit he says and does recently because he’s mentally stuck in a TV show. Ehh, who knows?

This song is a boundful journey of hilarity. Again, I like this song, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have flaws, mostly in the lyrical department. These lyrics are so ridiculous and easy to misinterpret that I don’t think anyone could review this song the same way. Charlie Wilson is wasted here and it’s a shame because he is an amazing vocalist. But what makes me like the song the most is the production. It is amazing. The old-school soul sample is perfect, though I could’ve done without the distorted synth bass. In spite of what I said about the lyrics, Kanye’s verses aren’t that bad. Hell, he’s had worse verses. His performance here is servicable. It’s still entertaining. He probably had good intentions for this song, but being Kanye, he somehow finds a way to screw that up. Next Target Practice, I review a random straight out the Hot 100 right now.